OWC 304 E — Novel II: Plot and Structure
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Angela Pneuman
Date(s): Apr 1—Jun 7
Class Recording Available: Yes
Tuition: $1240
Refund Deadline: Apr 4
Unit(s): 3
Enrollment Limit: 15
Status: Closed
Quarter: Spring
Unit(s): 3
Duration: 10 weeks
Date(s): Apr 1—Jun 7
Tuition: $1240
Refund Deadline: Apr 4
Instructor(s): Angela Pneuman
Enrollment Limit: 15
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Closed
This course is not open to the public, but rather by admission only. For more information on the Online Writing Certificate Program and its application process, please click here.
In this course, students will focus on how to create and sustain the “long middle” of their novels, continuing their journey toward the completion of their manuscript. The long middle is the area where plot and structure of the novel are most important, because we may have lost that burst of energy that propelled our beginnings, but the end is not yet in sight. This course will teach students how to continue building suspense and intensity past the inciting incident by alternating between different subplots and points of view, to ensure modulation; and framing scenes and chapters for maximum tension, to keep readers turning pages.
In this course, students will focus on how to create and sustain the “long middle” of their novels, continuing their journey toward the completion of their manuscript. The long middle is the area where plot and structure of the novel are most important, because we may have lost that burst of energy that propelled our beginnings, but the end is not yet in sight. This course will teach students how to continue building suspense and intensity past the inciting incident by alternating between different subplots and points of view, to ensure modulation; and framing scenes and chapters for maximum tension, to keep readers turning pages.
ANGELA PNEUMAN
Former Stegner Fellow, Stanford; MFA Instructor, Sarah Lawrence College; Executive Director, Napa Valley Writers’ Conference
Angela Pneuman is the author of the novel Lay It on My Heart and the short story collection Home Remedies. Her fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, Glimmer Train, The Virginia Quarterly Review, New England Review, and Ploughshares, and she is a contributor to Salon, The Believer, and The Rumpus. She received a PhD in English from SUNY Albany. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Joan Silber, The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long as It Takes (ISBN 978-1555975302 )
(Required) Stephen Koch, The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction (ISBN 978-0375755583)
(Required) Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic (ISBN 978-0307744425)
(Required) Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake (ISBN 978-0358062684 )
(Recommended) Tobias Wolff, Old School (ISBN 978-0375701498 )
(Recommended) Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half (ISBN 978-0525536963)
(Recommended) J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace (ISBN 978-0140296402)
(Required) Stephen Koch, The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction (ISBN 978-0375755583)
(Required) Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic (ISBN 978-0307744425)
(Required) Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake (ISBN 978-0358062684 )
(Recommended) Tobias Wolff, Old School (ISBN 978-0375701498 )
(Recommended) Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half (ISBN 978-0525536963)
(Recommended) J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace (ISBN 978-0140296402)